


mistletoe

by mayamattews (lydiastxles)



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: Christmas, F/M, kind of a continuation to Happy Birthday Josh!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-11 22:22:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9037067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lydiastxles/pseuds/mayamattews





	

Being an intern at a prestigious architecture firm was something that Josh never expected. He always heard stories about how it would be hard to even get a job in a good firm and that he’d probably have to work independent, so he never got his hopes too high but he worked his butt off to be the best that he could possibly be. It worked out better than he anticipated once he got the job six months after he graduated.   

The job was hard. When he got it, Josh though that as an intern he’d have to grab coffees or making copies of projects, but boy he was wrong. His boss was a demanding woman and all she seeks was perfection. That said Josh was one of the most pressure interns over there. Every day he had to make sure every single project she was handling – and it was a lot – was perfect and on time. He had to call every supplier to make sure the order was on time, grab samples over town and still be able to participate in minor projects some of the employers were on. 

“So, are you sure that it’ll be ready by next week?” Josh said taking notes. “Great. I will inform Ms. Harrison then. Thank you.” 

Josh hung up the phone and took a deep breath. It was his eighth call that day and it was as long as the other seven were. It was only ten o’clock and he was exhausted. He glanced over his boss office and watched her discussing over the phone with someone. He knew it that she’d be a while and, for now, he had no more phone calls to make, so he thought it’d be a great time to take a little break. As he got ready to leave his table, the phone rang again, making him sigh and sit back on. 

“Harrison & Leith Architecture firm, Josh speaking. How may I help you?” 

“What’s up loser?” A familiar voice filled his ear, making him smile.  

“Maya, how did you get this number?” 

“You know who gave me the number. The only person who has the number” He sighed. He was going to kill Andrew. “Do you realize how much money I wasted calling everybody you knew to ask the firm number?” 

“Sorry, but I had to avoid this kind of stuff. I can’t have personal calls here” She laughed. “Is everything okay? You’re not drunk calling me again, are you?” 

“It’s been ten months, let it go.” Josh glanced one more time to his boss office. She was still yelling at the phone, so he had probably a few more minutes. “Everything’s fine. I just need your car.” 

“For what? You don’t drive.” 

 “Yes I do! Riley and I learned in Philly. You were there!” 

Josh remembered. They were seventeen that time and his father thought it would be an amazing idea to teach them how to drive. Josh had no idea why he wanted to teach them to drive. They lived in New York City, taking the subway was the smartest choice of transportation. Unfortunately, the girls thought it was a great idea and were very excited to have the opportunity of driving. 

It went exactly as Josh expected. Riley was a good driver. She learned it fast but she was also kind of afraid of doing something wrong, so she constantly ended up doing small mistakes. Maya was a good driver since the beginning, but she was way too sloppy. She liked the speed, she constantly forgot to look at the mirror but miraculously, she got her driver license.  

“Right, I remember now. You can’t drive my car.” He said. “Especially around the city with all this snow.” 

“Boing, I’m an amazing driver. I passed the test on my first try and your mom said you had to do it two times.”  

“Regardless of that,  you won’t be driving my car. What do you need it for anyway? You take the subway everywhere.” 

“I need to be somewhere Saturday morning and I need to bring a lot of supplies, but that’s impossible on the subway, especially when it’s snowing.” Josh saw his boss hung the phone. He needed to hang up. 

“The answer is still no, but I’m free Saturday morning so I can take you.” Before she could argument, he continued to talk. “I can’t talk right now, so just text me the time and I’ll be there with the largest cup of coffee you’ve ever seen. Bye gorgeous.” 

When he offered to driver her, Josh didn’t think that he’d have to wake up at 6:30 in the morning. He arrived at her place and knocked a few times before she answered. It was absolutely not normal to see Maya looking excited that earlier. She looked very pretty in a red coat that she wore everywhere.

“How is it possible that you’re standing up this early?” He asked handing her a cup of coffee. “I’ve seen you around campus when you had that early class. You looked like you were dying” 

“That’s because that class was boring. This thing is important” She pointed to some box in the corner of the apartment. “Suit yourself” 

“Where are we going, anyways?” He asked, grabbing a few boxes and heading to the door. “You never told me the address.” 

“You’ll see when you get there.” She grabbed some too and followed him. “So, how’s the job? Found someone interesting there yet?” 

“I barely get time to leave my table.  So you think dating it's just a go?” After putting all the boxes in the car,  both got in. “Plus all the woman who work there are over their thirties” 

“You’re way too picky.  Either they’re too young or too old for you.” He didn’t catch any sign of resentment in her voice but he still felt a little uncomfortable.  

“I’m not too picky; you’re the one that has a hell lot of more options than I do.” She glanced at him.  

“If that’s the problem I have a lot of male friends that’d love to meet you.” Now it was his time to glare at her. “What?   I didn’t know I was into girls until I kissed one.” 

“Yeah thanks for the offer but I think I’ll pass.” He looked at the GPS and put the address that Maya gave him. “So now can you tell me where are we going?” 

“Nope. You’ll know when we get there.” 

* * *

Thirty minutes later, they were pretty much in the other part of town. Josh was convinced that the GPS was mistaken and had taken him some place where but for the look on Maya’s face; they were in the right place. That didn’t stop him to glance in the direction of the device to make sure they were headed the right place.  

When he heard the  _you reached your destination_ ,  Josh was obligated to park. They stopped in front of what it looked like an abandoned building and Maya, for the first time since they started to move, stopped texting whoever she was texting and looked up. 

“Please tell me we are in the wrong place.” It was all Josh could say. He had no idea why Maya would need a ride to an abandoned building that early in the morning in the winter. Was she planning to paint the place?  Was this part of a project for some of her class? Was she pranking him?  

“We’re in the right place.” He looked over to the building one more time. “So here’s the deal. I come here every Saturday morning and I give art classes to little kids whose schools have no art program. They don’t have any kind of supply so half of what I make here and at Topanga's I use to buy them stuff.” 

Before he could say anything, she left the car. He didn’t know what has just happened there. How didn’t he know that Maya was giving art classes every weekend? He never heard anyone mentioning or even her saying something about it. Josh left the car and helped her with the boxes, without saying anything. 

As they entered the place,  Josh was getting more speechless.  What it looked bad from the outside was really worse in the inside.  The place was pretty much falling apart.  The walls were all peeling off, there was a lot of trash in the ground and the smell wasn’t the best.  But what broke Josh’s heart was seeing so many kids running around the place, all looking incredibly cold.  

When they saw Maya they started to wave at her excitedly and their faces just lighten up when she smiled back.  He also noticed that when they saw him walking behind her,  they stared weirdly at his direction.  

They entered in a room and put the boxes down.  The “classroom” didn’t had much.  It has some old wooden chair that looked like it was rotting,  a metal locker in the back of the room and a small backboard in the front of the class.  

“Why didn’t you tell me?” That was the only thing he managed to say.  

“Because the time wasn’t right yet.” She put her hand in his shoulders. “It’s no big deal.  They're trying to put this building together for a few months now so they can open a school but the money is short and everybody is doing what they can.” 

“Oh” 

Maya went to the door and put her hands on her hips. “All right little chipmunks, everybody inside” 

She didn’t have to say it twice. Most of the children that was running around when they passed, came to the class as fast as they could. Josh counted ten kids in there. They all ignored the old chairs and sat on the floor looking excitedly at Maya.  

“Good morning munchkins” 

“Good morning Miss Hart” 

“Okay, so today we're not going to use crayons to paint. Instead, we’re going to use actual paint!” There was a lot of yays, reminding Josh of Riley. Maya came closer to him and put a hand in his arm. “This is today’s special helper. His name is Josh but you can all call him Uncle Boing” 

Josh glared at her. What?  

Ignoring him, she pointed to a girl who was with her hand raised.  

“Is he your boyfriend, Miss Hart?” 

“No,  he’s my friend and Riley’s uncle.  Do you all remember Riley?” There were a lot of nods. Maya smiled. Riley was a hit in that class. “Okay, so while Uncle Boing and I set the paints,  you guys pick a buddy and go put one of the old shirts that are in the locker.” 

Maya went towards the boxes and started to open them and taking off the supplies she’d brought.  

“So, thank you for the special invite.” She looked at him with an eyebrow raised. “And for sharing my nickname with them.” 

“Don’t be like that. I do this with everybody.” 

“What do you mean? Who else did you brought here?” 

“Pretty much everybody. Riley, Topanga, Cory,  my mom, Shawn… And I’m planning to get Farkle here next month when he’s visiting, cowboy two weeks from now and Auggie next week to teach them how to do origami and stuff like that.” They finished taking the supplies and started to organize them. “I didn’t warn any of them and I don’t tell the kids who is going to come next week so they don’t get their hopes up” 

“I don’t understand why you don’t just ask instead of doing this” 

“Because everybody is busy with something, Josh” She looked to the kids that were still dressing up. “Topanga is a partner in a law firm. Riley’s job at the paper is taking a lot of her free time. My mom gets busy with my little sister and taking care of Topanga’s. You are working 24/7 and when someone ask you to wake up that early to go and work some more,  the immediate response is sorry I’m busy. And I want to bring people here to meet these little kids so they know that there are people outside their lives that care about them. Just like Shawn did to me.” 

Josh was perplexed for a solid minute. He knew where she’s coming from but she sounded a lot like someone they both knew and loved. 

“Oh my God, you’re going to be the third generation Feeny.” 

“Shut up” They laughed. A little girl came towards them, making them stop and look at her.

“What’s the matter honey?” 

“The boys said that they’re going to paint my hair blue.” 

“I’ll make sure they don’t paint your hair blue” She smiled. “In fact,  here’s what I’m going to do.” She raised her voice, getting the attention of the rest of the kids. “Girls, get in a line behind Julia for us to braid your hair so it won’t get dirty with paint” 

“I love that you share everything with them” He said sarcastically. “I really hope you visit me in the firm and spread the news.” 

* * *

After the girls were with their hair braid and everybody was dressed with a big old shirt they’d brought from home, Maya distributed papers and brushes so they could start painting. Josh was really admired by what Maya was doing. He already knew she had a golden heart but he’d never thought that she’d be a part of educating someone. 

He knew that he was far gone too. Since the kiss they shared a few months ago when she was drunk, Josh couldn’t stop thinking about doing it again. He could still feel her lips against his,  the way that her hand placed on his hair,  pulling him closer. He wanted to kiss her so badly for the last couple of months that he was afraid that if they stayed alone for too long,  he wouldn’t be able to control himself.  

Part of him was glad that she didn't remember that night.  Part of him wanted to bring that up, but he couldn’t.  What if she didn’t feel the same way?  What if she said it was just her drunk self and that it was a mistake?  Jasmine has brought it up that Maya still liked him and he should tell her about the kiss but part of him wondered if that wasn’t just the romantic in her that was tired of the long tale of Josh and Maya.  

 He actually had fun helping the kids with their art.  Of course that everybody was a mess and he wondered if she had the decency to bring something to cover the seat of his cat when they got back.  

“Uncle Boing?” The same little girl who asked if he and Maya were dating called him.  He was going to kill Maya. 

“Yeah?” Josh leaned down to her.  

“Miss Hart hair is going to get dirty with paint” she pointed to Maya that was finger painting with a little boy on the other side of the room.  Both of her hands were with paint and he saw that she was doing her best to keep the hair away from the paint. “Can’t you make a braid on her hair?” 

“Uh… Yeah sure.” He walked over her and grabbed her hair.  She stopped what she was doing and looked at him. “There was a request that I avoid Miss Hart beautiful hair to get dirty.” 

“My hero” Josh started to pull all of her hair behind gently. Her hair was incredibly soft and he could smell the lemon of her shampoo. Feeling his fingers massaging her head, even though being not intentional, made Maya’s entire body shivered. Josh continued passing his fingers in Maya’s long curls until he decided to finally starting to braid her hair. He did it as slowly was he could, making sure it was perfect and that he could spend more time with his hand on her hair.  

“Miss Hart is blushing” Josh finished the braid and stepped away from Maya. He’d never got so uncomfortable near children before. He scratched the back of his head, amazingly embarrassed. Maya, however, stood up smiling.

“Okay little ones, time to see what you’ve done. One by one, go to the front of the class and show us what you did!” She sat a few feet away from Josh while the first kid went to show his work.

Most of the paint was really generic. Since it was December, everybody draw something related to Christmas. He saw a lot of Santa’s, reindeer, presents, trees and the kids with their families on Christmas morning. Maya was giving them all kinds of compliments and putting them on the wall with the other drawings.  Once in a while he said something about the painting but he mostly stayed quiet, afraid to use too much generic compliments. Maya was doing a better job than him, even when someone made a drawing that looked a lot of the both of them holding hands near the mistletoe.

After a few hours, some parents came to pick up the kids. They all waved their goodbyes to both of them and Maya promise to see them next week. Josh could see why she wanted to make every single one of them feel special. There was a few parents that didn’t gave much attention to the work of their kids and some that looked too tired to stay long. There was only two parents that talked to Maya about the classes and left listening close to the excitement on their daughters story about the day.

Josh helped Maya grab everything they brought and put back in the boxes. When they arrived the car, she took away a couple of the old shirts that were left unused and put on the seat.

* * *

“I don’t understand how you didn’t get a single drop of paint on yourself.” She said as soon as he started to drive. “Look at my hands!” Maya put them up for him to see. “My whole arm is painted blue.”

“That’s because I used a device very helpful called brush.” He shot her a smirk. “I’m not sure if you’re familiar with it, but it’s very useful when you don’t want to get dirty.”

“Wow, Boing, you’re very wise.” Maya was looking at him amused. “Next time, you introduce me to the wonderful magical tool that avoids all this.”

“I’ll be sure to do it, Hart.”

“Thank you for staying, by the way.” He looked at her. “You really made them happy. Me too.”

“Anytime you need a special helper, you can call me. It was fun.” Josh wasn’t lying. Even thought he was very tired, he enjoyed being there. “Except the part of the little girl who made sure to drag me around everywhere she went.”

“What can you do? She’s got a little crush.” He blushed. “Nothing you’ve handled before.” Josh nodded, looking to the street. He wondered if that was a hint that she was over him. It looked like it was, but it didn’t seem like she did it on purpose. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard her phone ringing. “Hey Riles” There was a pause. “What do you mean again? He fixed last week!” A longer pause came after that. Maya seemed to get madder than before. “Well, call him then and tell him he’s going to fix it for free this time and he’s also going to fix the heater too for the inconvenience. If you see that he’s going to say no, you say that he better do it or I’ll be coming down to have a long heated conversation with him during his Grey’s Anatomy episode.” Josh held a smile. He could see that totally happening. “Okay. No, that’s fine. I’ll be at Josh’s and then I’ll go home. I love you honey.” She waited for the answer and hang up.

“So, you’ll be at Josh’s.”

“The stupid super didn’t fix the shower thingy and now the shower doesn’t work, there’s water everywhere in the bathroom. So yes, I’ll be using Josh’s shower to get the paint out of me and then I’ll go home” Maya glanced at him. “Is that okay?”

“That’s fine. As long as you don’t interrupt my Grey’s Anatomy episode, you can do whatever you want.”

* * *

Sometime later, they arrived at Josh’s apartment. They decided left the boxes in the car since he’d probably go to drive her home after taking a shower. The place was empty, Josh’s roommate Andrew, was nowhere to be seen and Josh was a little relieved about that. He and Maya were very close friends too but whenever she wasn’t around, Andrew would just burst into a long monologue questioning why weren’t they were together yet. The biggest mistake on Josh’s life was telling him about the incident when they kissed while she was drunk. Since that day, there wasn’t a moment where Andrew didn’t make a comment about it. He was becoming worse than Jasmine.

“Where’s the other half of your soul?” Maya asked dropping her bag on the couch. “You two didn’t break up yet did you?” 

“Don’t be bitter because your better half has a boyfriend.” He smiled. “Andrew is in Philadelphia for the weekend. Someone’s getting married.”

“Please, Friar has nothing compared to me. I’m her extraordinary relationship.” She took off her boots. “Now, enough of chit chats, I need a shower.”

“You can use the one in my room.” He pointed to the door on her right, like if she didn’t know where it was. “I’ll leave you some clothes on top of the bed.”

As soon as he heard the sound of water, Josh entered his room and opened his drawer. He stared for moment thinking on what he could give her to use. It looked like an easy job, but he knew that she’d never return the clothes, so he needed to give her something that it was too small on him or that he didn’t use. After he picked and put on the bed, Josh closed the door and headed to the kitchen.

He decided to make something to eat. Running around kids was exhausting and since he barely had a breakfast, so he could be at Maya’s first thing in the morning, he felt like there was a hole in his stomach. The easiest thing to do that moment was pasta, so he gathered the ingredients and started to cook. It took a while to Maya leave the room. He glanced at her direction and noticed that she wasn’t wearing the clothes he picked for her.  

“Shame on you for trying to give me old clothes” Maya leaned on the table watching him cook.  “I’m going to keep this by the way.  They’re comfy.”

“Well what is the point of giving you new comfy clothes that I know you’re going to keep if I can give you something I’m not going to wear?” She rolled her eyes.

“What are you cooking?”

“Pasta. You like pasta right?”

“Yeah.” Maya smiled. “It’s so cute you’re willing to feed me.”

“Feed us” He gave her a look. They stood in silence while Josh finished cooking. Maya  started humming some Christmas song he couldn’t identify. After a while, the food was ready so he put some in a plate and gave it to her, doing the same for himself.  

They sat on the sofa and turned the TV on. He wanted to catch up on some TV show, but Maya put insisted on Say Yes to the Dress. They ate mostly in silence, with the exception of some remarks Maya was giving on how stupid the girl was it for not wanting the dress she liked because her sister was obviously jealous that she was getting married. Josh just kept nodding, waiting for it to end.

After insisting for a while, Josh got to put on a movie. The both were already done eating, so it was just something to kill the time.

“So, what’s in those boxes next to the most naked tree I’ve ever seen?”

“Christmas ornaments. Morgan dropped them off when she visited with Clara.” He turned down the TV. Maya smiled.

“Morgan visited almost three weeks ago. Why haven’t you decorated yet?”

“I’m not spending Christmas here and neither is Andrew, so why bother?” Maya glared at him. “What?”

“How is it possible you’re a Matthews?” She stood up and headed towards them, opening it. “Boing, your niece has decorated our place since a day after Thanksgiving. It was going to be after Halloween, but I got her to postpone it.”

“Well, Riley is different. It’s her favorite holiday.”

“Your brother’s place looks like the North Pole.”

“They still got a little kid living with them.” He watched her as she decorated his tree. “Plus, we’re going to spend Christmas there, so it’s only reasonable that there’s decoration.”

“Morgan brought this to you in the middle of November.” She looked at him. “She doesn’t even live near New York and she drove all the way here with those boxes.”

He stayed quiet watching her place the ornaments around the tree. He thought about helping her, but he never been a fan of setting up the tree when he was younger and she seemed to have fun by herself. To be completely honest, he liked Christmas but he avoided putting too much effort on it because it reminded him of home and he missed his parents so much.

With him moving permanently to the city and getting that new job, he barely talked to Amy and Alan. It wasn’t for lack of trying, but he had such a busy schedule and calling them just didn’t felt like it was filling a hole he had in his heart.

He usually saw them on Thanksgiving and Christmas every year, but this year Eric had given them a trip to Spain that went for twenty days, so they wouldn’t be attending the holidays at Cory’s. Josh realized how he sounded a momma’s boy, but even though he was 24 years old and had been living alone for the past 7 years, he was very close to his parents, being the youngest son. It wasn’t as bad as Eric and his parents, but he came in a close second.

Josh didn’t notice how much time he had spent thinking, but when he blinked and focused his eyes at Maya, the tree was done or at least, almost. Maya was trying her best to get the star at the top of it by standing on her tip toes and, sometimes, jumping.

When she noticed that he was watching her, Maya raised an eyebrow.

“I dare you to say something”

“Oh, I wouldn’t” He raised both of his hands, walking to her side. “Please, continue”

She didn’t. She knew that if she started to jump trying to reach the top of the tree, he’d definitely filmed it and show to everyone they knew. Instead of doing it, she walked over him and jumped in his back. Josh almost lost balance, but held her legs firmly, guaranteeing that she wouldn’t fall. He looked up and Maya smirked.

“Old times sake”

“You’re impossible” He walked closer to the tree and Maya put the star on top of the tree. She rested her head on his head and smiled. “Good job, Hart”

She jumped out of his back and went to grab some more stuff from the box. Josh was way too distracted by the tree to notice what she was doing, fixing some ornaments to keep it from falling.

“Josh?” He made a noise with his mouth while putting his favorite homemade ornament in the front. “Turn around”

It took a few seconds for him to do as she said but when he did, Josh was speechless. Maya was wearing a ridiculous Eric-mistletoe-hat that he had made for Josh when he was 14 so he could try and kiss a girl he liked back then. It was just a hat he had stolen from Feeny and glued a stick with the mistletoe in the end of it. It looked old and he was still surprised that the stick was still hanging there.

“Uh…” Josh didn’t know what to say or to do. Actually, he didn’t know what she wanted him to do. The mistletoe kind of covered it, but she could also just be messing with him. She took one step towards him.

“You know, Boing, tradition says that when under a mistletoe, the people have to kiss each other.”

Josh stopped smiling and kept looking at her. He could feel their breaths becoming shorter. Josh couldn’t keep moving his eyes from hers to her lips.  The smile never left her face when she closed the gap between them and kissed him.

The kiss was delicate and slow. Her lips gently touched his while her hand rested on his shoulder. Josh’s fingers buried on her curls bringing her closer. This time, things didn’t get heated up too fast. They took their time, exploring each other mouths and the feelings it brought to them. To get more comfortable, Maya pulled him to sit on the couch and sat on his lap. After a while, she broke the kiss and looked at him, still smiling.

“Uh…Maya…”

“What?” She raised her eyebrow. “Not drunk enough for you?”

Josh’s face dropped. He couldn’t believe on what he was listening.

“What? How…”

“Jasmine told me like…  Three days after it happened.”

“Oh my God, I can’t tell her anything” He sighed. “About that night, I’m sorry for letting it happen, you were so drunk and I…”

“I’m not sorry for it.” She cut him off. That was a surprise. “It seems like a very heated kiss and the question is why you didn’t tell me”

“Because I shouldn’t have kissed you. You were wasted and you did that on impulse…”

“It wasn’t on impulse.” His fingers tightened on her waist. “If I kissed you, I wanted to.” She started to get closer to him. “Just like I want to right now”

And they kissed once more. That settled than. It was the best Christmas Josh ever had (even though it wasn’t Christmas yet).


End file.
